Lauren Schechtman '17 is a communication major from Highland Park, Ill. In an article that was previously published on Odyssey.com, Schechtman shares her reasons why the major is the right one for her.
Being a college student, the first thing I'm usually asked about is my major. When I reply that I'm a communication major, I often get a high pitched “oh,” along with some forced head nodding.
I'm a communication major, I'm pretty sure I know how to read non-verbal cues.
I distinctly remember one time when my choice was directly questioned. I was returning home in early December from studying abroad in London and as I passed through customs, the officer asked me what I was studying. I answered, “communication,” to which he sneered and shot me the classic, “and what do you plan to do with that?” line.
To me, communication is the closest thing to magic that exists the in the real world. While our fairytales and stories illustrate magic as the impossible, communication shows what is possible. It sheds light on unseen issues, struggles, and stories, and focuses on what is real.
Choosing my major was a difficult task when I came to college, as so many areas of study interested me, but after exploring subjects ranging from economics to biology, I realized that my heart was in the humanities.
When people find out that I am a communication major, it seems they initially assume I chose a field with an easy course load so I could breeze through my four years of college, gaining a degree without hard work.
Contrarily, I've found it to be the opposite. Until I entered college and began taking communication courses, I don't think I'd ever known learning in its truest form.
Sitting in a classroom where open discussion and critical thinking is encouraged, my classes dissect the world around us and deconstruct the fundamental aspects that make things the way they are. Some constructs are complex brain-bending concepts that make you sit back for a moment and say, “really?” While others are as clear as day, practices that occur often in daily life, but which are easily overlooked.
I'm not arguing that communication is a better major than economics or biology. But communication is no less intellectually challenging than any other subject just because it focuses on qualitative studies rather than quantitative data.
I'm often asked what communication is, as it is a very generic term. There are so many answers that I could give. Communication questions hegemonic norms and practices that play off of power relations and suppression. Communication allows insight into other human lives that you could never see just by solely judging a person on the surface. Communication gives a voice to the voiceless through ethnographic stories and critical analysis of our current social structures.
As a communication student, I am constantly encouraged to ask “why?” Now, I instinctively question what's occurring and relish the impact I can make by always asking “why.”